The Clifton clarion., 1887-07-06
A HUMAN HAND
Found Perfectly Preserved in m
 old Indian Mound.

VIu <hOuhus
 Henry Latham, a mining man who has recently returned from the vicinity of Emory's springs, old Mexico, exhibited an extraor- dinary fragment of poor mortality to a couple of interested specta- tors at the Grand Central this morning. Mir. Lotham has some mining property near the springs, and near the location are several mounds that bear traces of arti- fcial origin. One of them, crescent shaped and about four feet high, extends directly over the corner of one of bis claims, and in following the direction of the contract a few days ago the end of the mound was opened. A couple of feet be- low the surface was facing of small flat stones, the edges fitting with great nicety and the upper surfaces looking as though they had been leveled with blows of chlsel. A portion of these were removed and for some distance nothing else was encountered. At the depth of about eight feet, how ever, species of underground cairn was uncovered. It was toler- ably intact, oval in shape and about as large as barrel. It was made of irregular stones of a vari- ety of flint that Mr. Lothian states does not at present exist in the neighborhood. At the edges of some of the stones were slight tra- ces of what appeared to be some sort of cement, very unusal thing in structures of the sort.
 Mir. Lothian had a couple of men working for him, and he care fully uncovered the entire cairn before he made an attempt to open it. The top was considerably shat tered and the fallen stones were carefully lifted out, leaving an aperture of some two feet across. Inside was a mass of mouldering rubbish, from which two earthen ware vases, each about half full of dust, were lifted. They were or namented with raised bands and figures offlowers pressed in rude intaglio into the sides. But the most singular discovery was at the bottom. On this lay a bundle of tough fbrous stuff, not unlike ashes to us in texture, but harsher to the touch. MT. Lothian has some of it with him and it is pug gle to everybody. Inside of the bundle the miners were amazed to find a human hand in an excellent state of preservation. It was sev- cred just below the wrist joint. small, slender and with sinewy, shapely fingers. The flesh had turned brown and sunken in to some extent, but not much, so as to give the hand any of the ap- pearance of that of a mummy. At first glance one could readily sup pose it to be newly amputated. The flesh is drawn back a trife at the wrist, leaving the end of the bone exposed, and it cutsquarely off as though done with a saw. The nails are almond shaped and firmly adhere to the finger ends. Close by this strange relic was flat stone, the upper surface of which bears the print of hand, possibly the same one, in some sort of blood red pigment resembling enamel. The wavy flesh lines on the ball of the thumb and at the ends of the fingers are plainly discernible.
 Mir. Lothian has both the hand and stone and intends to send them to some eastern museum. As a specimen of a lost art of em- balming and some strange rite lost in the dust of ages they can fur nish an interesting study for anti quarians and problem not likely to be solved.-Inter- Republics.
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